My algorithm knows me better than I sometimes know myself. Lately, it has been serving me a steady diet of introvert quotes: more like a digital nudge toward self-acceptance. The most resonant was one misattributed to Jane Austen: “I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy, but like everybody else, it must be in my own way.”
My own way has always been quiet. As a child, I preferred the company of books and the intricate plot of an afternoon shadow to the chaos of the outside world. My parents, perhaps wisely, never pushed me toward grand adventures. This cultivated solitude wasn’t a limitation; it was my first classroom. In the silence, I learnt to listen, to observe the fragile march of time in a clock’s tick, the deliberate angle of evening light, and the way moonlight could paint a room in silver. I was not missing the world; I was studying its fundamentals from my chosen distance.
This inward focus became a privilege, a way to investigate the environment I had curated. And it was within this quiet that I stumbled upon a book that would violently, wonderfully, rearrange my understanding of power. It wasn’t from my parents’ well-stocked shelves. It was a battered copy of Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.
I guess humanity has now arrived at that point in time where we are able to understand and dissect the intricacies of our environment. Regarding introverts, some argue that there are different types of introverts, more akin to a hierarchy within this field but not quite a hierarchy.
I would not like to bore you by going into details about the varieties of introverts that are speculated to exist; I’d leave that for ChatGPT or discord rooms. For me the beauty of an introverted lifestyle would perhaps be the privilege to exercise such a lifestyle, most especially in today’s time. That would be due to the financially consuming aspect of it; as an adult it is easy to understand this aspect.
I consider myself an observer; hence, an early-on introverted lifestyle nourished my ability to observe my environment. The quiet tick-tock of the clock sitting in my room, measuring time through the gentle beats of the analogue clock, further helps me understand the fragility of time, being able to notice the way sunlight slants through a window at 4p.m. or, most interestingly, at the dusk of the night. Must I mention the moonlight spilling through half-open curtains, casting delicate silver patterns across the room, was and remains my favourite phenomenon to witness, being a homebody? Well, you do not have to be a homebody to probably notice that; maybe you just need to be observant about your surroundings.
One life-changing phenomenon I always itch to share is how much embracing an introverted lifestyle enabled me to get into my already curated surroundings and investigate the properties thereof. My parents had a little in-house library consisting of a plethora of books; they were also politically inclined and read the newspapers daily. My extended family loved books and would leave gifts of books upon the majority of their visits. My parents also never failed to gift books and encourage reading. To be honest, I barely read or completed any of the books, but I read one, but not from my parents.
It is a book called Angels and Demons, and this book completely changed my entire political perspective that I harboured at that time. I spent three days religiously combing every page of this book; it was a new thrill to keep my indoor sojourn exciting. Whenever I would return from school, friend visits, or errands, I would immediately return to my newfound love.
I would like to go into details, of course, but I would recommend you get the book and get into it yourself. The most important themes in the book for this context are Vatican politics and religion vs science, amongst others. Throughout chapters 31–95, a reader can observe that the death of the pope triggered a secretive election that exposed factions, corruption, and brutal ambition among cardinals. My frail political perspective was at that time beaten, battered, and reshaped into something more formidable.
Mid-read, it occurred to me that Dan Brown presented these themes as thrillers, not policy critiques. Yet, it served as an awakening. While the politics serve the plot’s adrenaline, not deep analysis, the book brings to life a largely political question: “How far should institutions go to protect their power?”
The opportunity to partake in outings specifically tailored to my interests – these interests, of course, picked up from my introverted lifestyle. Society refers to individuals like myself as shy, aloof, and distant. But those who know the truth better and can see that introverts are not hiding. You can say we are choosing depth over distraction and meaning over performance. My interests in my outings strongly reflect my choices and interests groomed from my introverted lifestyle, which enabled me to pick these interests that resonate with my being, despite inspirations drawn from my surroundings, as I earlier said.
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